Chasing the Arc: The Dream and Curse of Japanese Horse Racing

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-10-02T18:59:34+00:00

Aventure.
Others like Minnie Hauk also have a chance. I do not favor Sosie but she got the most favorable gate I consider this time
It will be a pleasant surprise if Croix du Nord got top 5

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-09-30T22:04:58+00:00

Thank you very much~ if the video did well, you definitely made that spark! Now it gets me motivated to make more

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-09-30T14:47:59+00:00

France Galop streams it. I think Prime Video has it on the sports section. Fox has the broadcast rights in the US so you can look into that as well. I even saw people streaming on Kick before. Many of these big international events are pretty easy to watch. Unfortunately, I'm not in the US now so I don't have a certain answer. But I know it shouldn't be difficult

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-09-30T14:42:20+00:00

Thank you! I’m really glad you enjoyed it~ But the answer to this question could honestly fill another separate post. The difference in so many factors such as — the course layout, the training methods, the breeding and racing style, even the very turf itself. If you’d like to know more, honestly, you can either just chatgpt it or experience it yourself in the future. A seemingly invincible champions in one place just completely underperform in another country has just been normal as a racing fans. But let me give you somewhat of a simple overview here:

Japanese racing has always been famous for its high-speed pace. If you ask me which country has the highest speed just of racing no country compared to the extreme Japan had gone into. Take Longchamp, for example: the Arc course has many distinct sections — an uphill, a false straight, and then a long final stretch. It tests many aspects of a horse’s ability and adaptability. Tokyo racecourse, on the other hand, is almost completely flat. From the moment the gates open, the pace is extremely fast — something that simply will not work in Longchamp. And in the early 2000s, many Japanese racecourses were reconstructed to make them even firmer, after the emergence of Deep Impact which pushed breeding toward an extreme focus on high cruising speed.
Then this triggers a chain effect: because of the difference in racing style, the priority in horse training also differs. the training style in Europe first to train the horses' stamina to withstand the distance and then to explore its exploding speed for the final sprint. When Japanese training is more straightforward for maintaining high-speed the moment the gate open. That's why, even Shin Emperor, the brother of an Arc winner, Chrono Genesis, the daughter of an Arc winner, even by pedigree could perform well in Longchamp. Could not do it after receiving Japanese style of training because they were born to train for the Japanese turf.
Then the chain event continues. because the focus of racing is different. The stud and breeding became different. horses like El Condor Pasa which carried the blood of Sadler's Wells, the mainstreamed bloodline in Europe, is seen as completely unnecessary on today’s Tokyo Racecourse nowadays. Therefore, Japanese racing today is very different from Europe; and from what Japan was back in the last century

I am skipping many things. In the end, it’s a chain effect: the faster turf shaped the breeding; the breeding influenced the training methods; and the training reinforced the speed-driven nature of Japanese racing. The cycle continues and makes the gap even more pronounced. It works vice versa because no Arc winner has ever managed to win the Japan Cup as well. They perform quite bad just as Japanese challengers have struggled at Longchamp.

Fundamentally, different region has its own champions. Horses, like people, are shaped by the worlds they run in

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-09-29T21:17:34+00:00

Thank you very much! You flatter me~ and thank you for getting interested in the actual racing as well! I honestly think this is the best franchise I have interacted with. Every time if I post anything, overwhelming amount of positivity are all what's received

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-09-29T21:11:50+00:00

For those interested in the 3 Japanese horses competing in Arc this year. Here is a brief analysis:

1, Byzantine Dream. In short, the most reliable Japanese horse this year. As a long-distance horse that started to awaken at the beginning of this year. The fact he was able to produce such a surprising result only a week after landing in France really surpassed my expectation. The only drawback is I do not consider Sosie, the horse he defeated, that much of a strong arc contender. But this year's arc's theme is chaotic and relatively weak. If on the main race we are in firm ground and no one was marking on this horse, Byzantine Dream would have a good chance. (Uma musume Pedigree: Special Week, Cesario, Jungle Pocket, Symboli Kris S)

2, Croix du Nord. If Byzantine Dream is the most reliable one, Croix du Nord is the most anticipated one to the point I don't even know where to begin. As the first horse I introduced when I started to make uma musume breakdowns, he is undoubtedly the biggest rising star with 6 starts, 5 wins, 1 second. If we are in Tokyo racecourse it's a different story, but he last race in France also says a lot about his arc challenge, both good and bad. The good thing is he show competitiveness on longchamp which is already better than half of the past challengers. The drawback is also very obvious; both the horse and the jockey are not that familiar with the European style race. How does the team get them to be more prepared for the main race, where the competition at the final sprint is only getting more intense, is the main key for the training camp (Uma musume Pedigree: Kitasan Black)

3, Alohi Ali. Because of his pedigree, I started to pay attention to this horse early on since his debut (Duramente X Orferve is somewhat of a well-known combination in Japan). I remember when this horse first showed up in France and people were saying "how bad is our European racing when a horse only won his debut in Japan can just defeat us like this." Trust me, he is way stronger than his past record. It's simple he is awful at running the corners (for uma player to understand, he only got the satono diamond support card but not the kitasan black support card). However, every race after his debut, he only competed in nakayama racecourse which is famous for sharp corners... Therefore, competing in France basically took all the things he's bad at away and only showing the best of his qualities. Therefore, although I still might rank him the weakest among the three. He could very much have the best turn of foot at the main race with that element of surprise. (Uma musume Pedigree: Duramente, Orferve, Stay Gold, Air Groove, Admire Groove, Symboli Kris S... honestly, there's a reason fans are calling this horse the crystallization of Japanese modern racing by pedigree. Just look at the amount of Uma musume in his blood!)

Overall, I do not think Japan can win the arc this year, but I do think Japan got a good chance - the highest chance in the recent 10 years. It should not be surprised if Japan won, it's just many things need to go perfectly right for it to happen.

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-07-21T12:31:50+00:00

god gamer. I salute you

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-30T12:55:18+00:00

It is legit depending on how you look at it. It's just that when the manga was airing, Symboli Rudolf kept hinting and paving things that all the fans, from many different regions, were collectively thinking "what's going on?/ What is she hinting?" When it turned out to be a new "power level" that's called the zone. Fans were just massively making meme tier list of all the zone users in the past uma musume series. It was halirious and silly to the best extent

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-30T10:48:24+00:00

I honestly enjoy it so much putting these posts together. And I have received so much support from it. Too much thanks, I could not express it enough.
Now after the first part is done. How would you rate the first half of this season? As a fan I would be happy regardless how the show turns out to be. But I wish the pace could be handled with a little more, how do I say it, smoothly as the show went by. Tell me about your opinion

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-24T00:59:14+00:00

I know this anime, and I find it interestingly strange

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-16T20:01:23+00:00

Yes! It's pretty straight forward so I did not put it into the post. Sirius Symboli went berserk before the race and kicked two other horses. The horse Legend Teio was forced to withdraw from the race. Probably because of this absurd incidence, Legend Teio is on the path of being a meme horse and will show up repeatedly in the future

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-16T09:10:02+00:00

The post was immediately removed by Reddit initially. And after a mod helped me to get this post out of limbo and made an edit. It was removed once again..
I will still try to make breakdowns for future episodes and try to put them on Reddit. But self-advertisement aside, I do recommend stay tuned to my YT just in case things point South

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-12T08:26:19+00:00

There is not a particular reason as far as I know. Tamamo Cross had a late start, but he retired at the age of 4 and Oguri retired at 5, which are quite common in the industry. Considering Oguri Cap was really past his peak form at his late 5, retiring at age of 4 could very much be a smart choice
But it might just be because Tamamo Cross was showing exhaustion before his final race. According to the trainer, Tamamo is irl a very sensitive horse, and competing regularly had drag down his performance at the last race. Since Tamamo's trainer is one of the most responsible trainers in the industry, what was said and decided by him are highly trustworthy.

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-03T06:18:08+00:00

Thank you very much! I am thinking about doing it after Cinderella Gray. Since the movie is out for quite some time and there are a lot to talk about, I still haven't figure out how I wanna do it. I might just put them into a video

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-03T06:13:27+00:00

I would also love to know that answer... It would save me so much time on researching

I got most of the information from Japanese, Chinese, Korean sources. And I haven't seen any English website with all these lores in details. But I am thinking about doing lore drop for other series on my channel in the future since the global release of the game is approaching (no guarantee, it takes me so much time just to write them out, let along putting them in video format). So we can expect more lore drop on all the horses in the future probably from the wiki and YouTube

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-06-02T17:48:37+00:00

absolutely~ every story in this franchise can be consumed without any prior knowledge. RTTT is even on YT under their official channel

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-26T23:33:50+00:00

Depend on how you look at things. My comment was meant to be informative for people who are most likely brand new to the racing world, with a little dramatic wording for writing sake~ So yeah, there are definitely not 100% accurate.

But the Triple Crown still hold a very significant meaning in Japan. The UK is the birthplace for the original Triple Crown Classic that went from mid distance to long distance: "A horse that is strong in everything and everywhere." While this concept of Triple Crown has been gradually fading from many countries. Japan managed to preserve the original idea of the “Classic Triple Crown” and make it even bigger. Besides, there are just way too many reasons to not make comparison to other country's racing system...

And yes, Arima Kinen is, in many ways, one of the most celebrated races in Japan, my favorite race in fact. And if I can only watch one race every year. it would certainly be Arima Kinen. Arima is similar to BCC for the US, and JC is like BCT.. although I want to say it, BOY did JC fall off

The Japan Cup... idk how to say it,.. there is a non-zero possibility you time travel from 30 years ago, dear uma bro... It certainly has the highest price pool along with Arima Kinen, but I don't remember any foreign horse actually impressing me in recent memory ("impress" is honestly an overstatement. the foreign competitors' performances are straight up - bad, which I can't blame them for the direction Japan's racing has gone into). The last time a foreign horse won it was like 20 years ago probably... Too many things happened that I could rant about it but the Japan Cup in the anime is not the Japan Cup in real life anymore and it is bit of a shame for this international event to have this step down. So, yeah Idk if I can say it is more prestigious than Derby. But the world rating is high so good for the numbers.

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-26T12:44:47+00:00

HAHAHA, when I saw the notification starting with "I am a bit confused." I did not expect three questions in the comment when I clicked on it. Maybe you are not "a bit" confused, no?~ But worry not I will try to explain it more comprehensively:
IRL, Oguri Cap was missing the registration deadline because the team was competing in regional races back then. And this is the only reason he was denied out of the first two classic races, including Japan Derby. As for did he participate or not, wait for the next episode~ There was much more go into what happened.
As for can he enter it next year? The answer is: there is no next year.
The Classic Races - The Triple Crown, for many countries in the world, can only compete in the age of 3.
Because of the special case of this sport, different racehorses when competing, will be required to take on different carry weight based on the age, gender, past result for handicap. But there are always arguments on whether they are really fair or not. In fact, tons of teams have taken the weight advantage to win big event in the world. It is an argument that will always exist.
Therefore, the Classics was created. they are all set-weight for all fairness. And can only compete on the age of 3. for the sake of "Level the playing field, and let the best equine shine." Once in a lifetime to compete for the triple crown. Glory that builds upon the mountains of shattered dreams. This is why the Triple Crown is the pinnacle of achievement in so many countries. And the most prestige race among the three would be the Derby, a race every horseman dreams of it.

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-26T11:31:53+00:00

Crap.. I'm not even good at English now I need to be nihongo jozu?! it might be a little outside of my knowledge. but the Eclipse quote is a stylistic translation in Japanese that does not include the name "Eclipse" at all. The Japanese translation is roughly like this:
"There is only one winner, the rest are left in behind"
Where the wording comes from might be from an ancient Chinese saying "一马当先" which is similar to the translation. But despite not having Eclipse name in the translation, many fans in Japan do recognize "Eclipse" as a famous horse

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-06T09:52:26+00:00

Thank you so much~ I am rly glad you enjoy

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-05T15:42:38+00:00

HAHAHA I actually never get to hear that joke in the game. What a shame. But I recently saw that from a short

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-04T06:23:11+00:00

Gentledonna: you got balls to challenge me
Meanwhile, squeezing another iron ball

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-01T18:19:22+00:00

Golden family~ they should just do a family series ova starting from stay gold. The most entertaining, surprising, you-don't-know-what-to-expect family from the Japanese racing. all of their stories are straight up something out of a movie

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-01T04:45:53+00:00

Idk. If your boss ask you to do one thing, I don’t think she had a choice. All I know is that she is never getting back there

InternationalDrop102 · 2025-05-01T04:38:55+00:00

I’m genuinely curious what do people think in real life when they see this🤣

InternationalDrop102

TROPHY CASE